Debut Novel Depicts Murder in the Name of Religion

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(PRWEB) June 20, 2012

In his debut novel, “A Gash in the World” (published by iUniverse, where it was chosen for the Editor’s Choice Recognition Program), Prashant Parikh offers a profound meditation on contemporary Hindu fundamentalism in the modern world set in the midst of murders. The story takes place in 1993, a period of great turmoil after the destruction of a mosque in India by Hindu fundamentalists in 1992.

Readers will find much to discover in Parikh’s intellectual thriller, including a fascinating discourse on a broad range of religious and philosophical topics.

In “A Gash in the World,” readers meet a wide cast of characters, one of which is Harold Stone, a professor of Indian studies at Harvard. Harold narrowly escapes murder as he looks for the lost book of Bharata (a classical Indian scholar) that could change human relations and politics globally. Following a murder after his lecture at the Asia Society in New York, Harold is quickly drawn into a seemingly ancient argument involving literature, religion and politics. With the assistance of his colleagues, a former student Asha Raman and a journalist named Samir Khanna, Harold begins his adventure to solve the mystery and resolve the argument—an argument with a critical relevance to our modern times.

When Harold first returns from New York to his office in Cambridge, two other murders take place. He then travels to Grindelwald for a conference on Indian studies, where he has an important conversation with a trusted colleague. Later, on vacation in India, he makes an important discovery after the murder of a priest that leads him to the mystery’s solution. Harold then visits Delhi and Mumbai, where he disappears.

When Asha and Samir meet up with Harold’s daughter, they are able to translate the ancient argument and liberate Mumbai from fundamentalism in a dramatic climax that guarantees to stimulate the imaginations of readers interested in world affairs and culture.

Inspired by Dostoevsky’s long dialogic forms amidst murders, “A Gash in the World” is intricately plotted with interconnected levels and is written in graceful, literary prose. It offers insights into fundamentalism and modernity by drawing upon novel ideas from a variety of fields – religion, art, science and the humanities. Featuring a wide range of geographic locations, characters and engaging sub-plots, this distinctive thriller is sure to absorb mystery fans everywhere.

About the Author
In addition to being the CEO and founder of his own software company, Prashant Parikh does research in linguistics and philosophy. He earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees from MIT and Stanford University. Although “A Gash in the World” is his first novel, he has also published two highly acclaimed academic books, “The Use of Language” in 2001, and “Language and Equilibrium,” published by the MIT Press in 2010. He lives and works in New York City.

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